The Sons of Dorn: Painting a Diemos Pattern Rhino - Step by Step (is...

The Sons of Dorn: Painting a Diemos Pattern Rhino - Step by Step (is...: Back before Christmas I foolishly purchased a number of Diemos Rhinos to complement my planned Imperial Fists legion. For a while they just sat in the part opened box while I worked up the courage to tackle the large expanses of yellow necessary.

Finshed Rhino

Undercoat

First after washing the assembled model in a tab of hot water and a small amount of washing-up liquid to remove any mould release agent, the whole model was given two thin coats of Vallejo White Undercoat with my airbrush.

Base Yellow Coat

After leaving the undercoat to dry overnight, the whole model was given a number of thin coats of Yriel Yellow suitably thinned with Vallejo Airbrush thinners. I don't have a specific way of thinning the paint - instead I normally add thinner in small batches until the mixture looks about the consistency of milk. I find this airbrushes pretty well without requiring too many separate coats (which I don't really have the patience for). For thick paints (like GW's Base Paints), I generally use slightly more thinner - and only airbrush in small batches as I find the bigger paint particles tend to clog the nozzle if I'm not careful.

Flash Gitz Yellow Highlights

Again, the model was left overnight to let the base coat dry completely. Had I been in a particular hurry, I would have borrowed the resident Lord of Terra's (or should that be terror) hairdryer. A thin coat of Flash Gitz Yellow was sprayed into the center of the main armour plates to give a subtle (and not really visible in the picture above) highlight to the base coat.

Brown Shading

Next I added a faint layer of Tamiya Flat Brown into recesses and areas where the amour plates join. I've managed to ruin several models doing this in the past, it's the one step I really dislike doing but without it, I find the model too clean. I've recently started experimenting with using weathering pigments instead but for now, I'm sticking with the approach.

Look ma, transfers...

With all the paint dry, I then added damage and wear marks by sponging on small amounts of GW Stormvermin Fur. I concentrated on the areas that would receive the most damage or wear and tear. I generally add the transfers I intend to use at the same time so that the weathering can be included on-top of the transfer.
The larger Forgeworld transfers are great but I've had several problems applying them recently so I take extra care now to apply sufficient Micro Set to both the target spot on the model and the transfer itself to aid application.

Shiny stuff is... shiny

Any non-yellow areas are then give the necessary coats of metal (or otherwise) paint. I generally cover the exhaust stacks with a dark brown (GW Rhinox Hide) as I think this looks closer to the heat scorched metal I would expect than a clean metallic colour.

Brown things are... not

I have followed Forgeworld's methods for painting models in most cases - one area I follow each time is the use of Burnt Umber oil paint to line and weather the model. I generally use the low surface tension of Oil to 'self line' the main armour panels. Above you can see where the oil paint has been applied.

More brown weathering

Finally I apply a brown wash made up of Oil Paints (Black and brown generally) to the metal areas and concentrate on the track sections.